Linux-based operating systems have always been considered virus and malware free. That's right? ... Well honestly, the truth is that no. No operating system on the face of the earth is 100% free from being infected. Not even Linux, no matter how far it is from the possibility of massive infections. One of those that are spreading on the web, as with Windows, you know. So why do we have the feeling that Linux is immune to any malicious attack?
Many people think that Linux is a system that is used by so few people that hackers are not worth spending their time and effort creating viruses that will only affect a few computers. That is still a fallacy, since more than 90% of Internet servers work under Linux architectures. What better way to cause chaos than by attacking those servers that everyone uses? If these servers were to be infected or destroyed, thousands of computers would fall due to a simple domino effect. Therefore, it is clear that the little use of Linux is not a reason to take into account to explain the low proliferation of viruses in this system.
Let's get to the root of the matter: Linux is an architecture with a very solid structure and with few fissures, which makes it practically immune to most infections. Systems based on Linux are made up of Linux (Properly said), which is the system kernel and for GNU / Linux, which is the operating system. We could say that the kernel is the heart of the system, the kernel, and GNU / Linux are the layers that surround it and that interact with the user. Today there are hundreds of Linux distributions, and they are all more or less the same at the kernel level, but totally different at the operating system level.
Let's go to the practical side: Suppose we create a virus for Debian. That would be very good, because we would infect computers running Debian, but we couldn't do anything against RPM-based computers like RedHat or Fedora. All this without taking into account that we would also need an indispensable requirement: a root or administrator password. Very complicated.
Linux forces us to establish a root password and a password for each user (except for guest users) unlike Windows, which allows creating administrator users without the need for a password, a fact that makes it highly vulnerable. But there is still more. Windows cannot function without a user interface, unlike Linux, which can be installed without the need for a graphical interface, thus increasing the level of security in our system. As you can see, Linux allows highly restrictive measures for the sake of system integrity and security. Now that everything is starting to make more sense?
In Linux, administrator permissions are basic!In any case, let's not trust ourselves. Today there are more than 800 known viruses for Linux: we have Trojans, various scripts, worms, rootkits ... But let's not be alarmed. Do you know how many viruses are identified in Windows? More than 20 million. The comparison is overwhelming.
Is it necessary to install antivirus on Linux? In principle, it would be enough to navigate and work carefully so as not to have any problems, so it is not necessary either. For those of us who are constantly formatting or passing the antivirus to our Linux computer, it is a frankly recommended alternative.
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